"I [Michael Krigsman] talk with many enterprise buyers, system integrators, CIOs, and software vendors about why IT projects are so notoriously difficult to get right. In the end, two observations astound me:

Enterprise buyers frequently exhibit poor judgment and denial when constructing their projects. Worse, the folks who most need advice are typically the least likely to accept it.

These problems are part of the business environment in which organizations deliver IT projects — they lie outside the project itself. For this reason, successful IT delivery requires a deep connection to the broader business. To be effective, this connection should take the form of collaboration between lines of business and IT. Success in IT requires cultivating greater cooperation between the technology delivery parts of an organization and the business units that consume technology to improve operations.